A key element in entertainer Merv Griffin’s...

A key element in entertainer Merv Griffin’s deal to buy control of Resorts International Inc. from Donald J. Trump has been approved by the Internal Revenue Service, lawyers said. The IRS has filed a private revenue ruling allowing Griffin to place Resorts stock in a trust, pending his receipt of a permanent New Jersey gaming license, and still preserve a significant tax writeoff, according to attorneys involved in the case. Griffin’s camp had feared that a particular form of the trust agreement insisted on by state casino regulators might threaten the tax writeoff, considered essential to completion of the Griffin-Trump deal.